BARON BOMBURST – Tyrannical ruler of Vulgaria and a lover of toys. A man-child, he is very immature, needy, and whiney. (Male, 35-45 yrs old; Range: E4-E5)

BARONESS BOMBURST Head of the Vulgarian Parliament and a hater of children. Tyrannical and dramatic. (Female, 30-45 yrs old; Range: G3-G5)

ORIS – Member of the two-person Vulgarian gang that works for the Baron and Baroness. Though he is not very smart, he is the leader. (Male, 35-45 yrs old; Range: C4-G5)

CARACTACUS POTTS – Eccentric, brilliant, English inventor and loving father and son. His inventions and children are his life. (Male, 40-50 yrs old; Range: A3-G5)

SYNOPSIS

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 British musical film loosely based on Ian Fleming’s novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car. Yes, THAT Ian Fleming of James Bond fame!

Set in the 1910s, the story opens with a montage of European Grand Prix races in which during one, a particular car that appears to win every race, swerves to avoid a girl saving a dog, loses control, crashes, and catches fire, bringing its racing career to an end. The car ends up in an old garage in rural England, where two children, Jeremy and Jemima Potts, have grown fond of it, but are told by a frequent customer, a junkman, that he and his business intend to buy the car from the garage owner Mr. Coggins, for scrap; to crush it into one solid lump, then melt it down to a liquid and have the metal to sell. The two children, who live with their widowed father Caractacus Potts, an eccentric inventor, and his equally peculiar father, implore him to buy the car before the junkman does, but he is unable to, not having the money. While skipping school, they meet Truly Scrumptious, a beautiful upper-class woman with her own motorcar, who brings them home to report their truancy to their father. Truly shows interest in Caractacus’ odd inventions, but he is affronted by her attempts to tell him that his children should be in school.

One day while going over his bizarre inventions, many of which seem to be similar in function and form to modern appliances, such as vacuum cleaners and televisions, Caractacus discovers that the sweets produced by a machine he has invented can be played like a flute. He tries to sell the “Toot Sweets” to Truly’s father Lord Scrumptious, a major confectionery manufacturer, but when the factory is overrun by dogs responding to the whistle, he is thrown out. Then he takes his automatic hair-cutting machine to a carnival to raise money, but it goes haywire. He eludes the wrath from his first (and only) customer named Cyril by joining a song-and-dance act, where he accidentally steals the show and earns enough tips to buy the car. Potts rebuilds the car in his own eccentric way, nicknaming it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the noises its engine makes. For a first trip in the car, Potts and the children, accompanied by Truly, go for a picnic on the beach, where Truly becomes very fond of the Potts family and vice versa. Caractacus tells them a story about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant ruler of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and keep it all for himself:

The quartet and the car are stranded by high tide, but Chitty suddenly deploys huge flotation devices, transforming into a power boat, and they escape inland. The Baron sends two comical spies ashore to capture the car for him, but they briefly capture Lord Scrumptious by accident, and then kidnap Grandpa Potts, mistaking him for the inventor of Chitty. Caractacus, Truly, and the children see him being taken away by airship, and they give chase. When they accidentally drive off a cliff, Chitty sprouts wings and propellers and begins to fly. They follow the airship to Vulgaria, where the Baroness Bomburst has ordered the imprisonment of all children, whom she abhors. Grandpa the “inventor” has been ordered by the baron to make another floating car, and is bluffing to avoid being tortured. The Potts party is hidden by the local toymaker, who now works only for the baron. Chitty is discovered and taken to the castle. But while Caractacus and the toymaker go in search of Grandpa and Truly goes in search of food, the children are captured by the Baron’s Child Catcher.

The toymaker takes Truly and Caractacus to a grotto far beneath the castle where the townspeople have been hiding their children, and they concoct a scheme to free the children and the village from the baron. The toymaker sneaks them into the castle disguised as life-size dolls, gifts for the baron’s birthday. Caractacus snares the Baron and the town’s children swarm into the banquet hall overcoming the baron’s palace guards and guests. In the ensuing chaos, the baron, baroness, and Child Catcher are all captured. The family is freed and fly back with Truly to England. Jeremy and Jemima finish the story themselves: “And Daddy and Truly were married!”. Truly seems to find this suggestion appealing, but Caractacus is evasive, believing that the class distance between them is too great. When they arrive home, Caractacus is surprised to find his father and Lord Scrumptious playing a lively game of soldiers. Scrumptious surprises him further with an offer to buy the Toot Sweet as a canine confection. Caratacus realises that when the sweets are marketed, he will be rich, and able to marry Truly. He immediately goes to tell her the news. They kiss, and Truly agrees to marry him. As they begin to drive home, while he makes a statement acknowledging the importance of being practical rather than always idealistic, the car takes to the air again, this time without wings.